There's always hope...
"Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent."
--Mignon McLaughlin
"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
--Anne Lamott
"Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope; and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable."
--John F. Kennedy
"Once you choose hope, anything's possible"
--Christopher Reeve
"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope."
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The American Red Cross
1 800 HELP NOW
Unlike 9/11, which induced shock in a matter of minutes, the horror caused by Hurricane Katrina has taken a bit longer to sink in...but it's now pounding the senses with the same intensity I felt 4 years-minus-10 days ago. I suspect I'm not alone. Things just ain't funny at the moment. So I think it's appropriate that C&J go on hiatus for a bit. Please use this as a thread to cheer and jeer as you see fit. If you can donate to the relief effort, please do. If you can walk to the store instead of driving, give it a whirl. And pray that the inept Bush administration can somehow stumble their way into doing a half-way competent job of helping "the folks."
Today I see horrible destruction. But I also see in my mind's eye a future of towns rebuilt along the Gulf Coast, and lives getting back to normal (well, as much as they can). One year from today I'll repost the words above...and I expect they'll sizzle like jazz on a sultry night on Bourbon Street.
Floor's open...
CHEERS to the Gulf Coast residents who have to put up with this nature-induced bullshit.
JEERS to the armed gangs roaming the French Quarter. What the fuck are you idiots thinking??
CHEERS to the relief coordinators who are trying to make inroads despite overwhelming confusion.
CHEERS to the relief workers and emergency personnel on the ground who probably feel like they've been dumped into one of Dante's circles of hell.
JEERS to George W Bush. The New York Times's lead editorial explains why.